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Transcript of Climate change presentation
The Risk of Global Climate Change,
Development Goals, and Strategies
Presented by:
Tatiana Ivanova
Ashley Jerome
Thien Do
Climate Change Context
• Climate change is a result of global warming
• Includes:
o Temperature
o Humidity
o Rainfall
o Wind
o Storms
• Climate Change is seldom listed among the stressors that might influence sustainability.
Climate Change: How Did We
Get Here?
• Humans are largely responsible for releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
o Burning fossil fuel for energy
o Deforestation
o Industrial processes
o Some agricultural practices
Climate Change Example:Asian Air Pollution
• Using models and data from the past 30 years, researchers found that air pollution over Asia (mainly China) is impacting global air circulations
• Booming economies and industrialization produces huge amounts of air pollutants
o Pollutants are strengthening storms above the Pacific Ocean which feeds into weather systems in other parts of the world
Climate Change Issues Today:2014 Sochi Olympics
• Conscious efforts were made to make the 2014 Sochi Olympics as sustainable as possible
o Efficient technology for heating and lighting
o Solar panels
• According to official estimates: carbon dioxide emissions directly and indirectly (travel for judges and spectators) resulting from the games amount to the equivalent of providing electricity from a coal plant to 2 million people
o These estimates do not include:
Emissions from construction
Carbon dioxide released from cutting down trees and disturbing soil
Climate ChangeAdaptation Failure:
Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion
• 4/26/1986 in Chernobyl, Ukraine
o Operating crews deliberately turned off the safety systems to perform turbine tests
o Power surge resulted and reactor’s fuel elements ruptures
o Fuel rods melted
o Graphite covering of the reactor ignited and burned for 9 days
Released radiation into the environment
Climate ChangeAdaptation Failure:
Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion• 800,000 people were exposed to the
radiation
o Most will die from cancer
• Flora and fauna have indeed been affected
• Final notes:
o Some climate change scientists currently say that nuclear energy is the best alternative to burning fossil fuels
o There are risks (i.e. the Chernobyl explosion) so it’s not an “end-all solution”
• Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale
Climate Change Adaptation Failure:Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
• 3/11/2014 in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan
o Nuclear Power Plant was hit by tsunami triggered by the Tohoku earthquake
o Three of the plant’s six nuclear reactors melted
o The plant began releasing substantial amounts of radioactive materials
Climate Change Adaptation Failure:Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
• Continued spills of contaminated water into the sea
• 1,600 deaths were related to the evacuation conditions
• Disaster produced the largest discharge of radioactive material into the ocean in history.
• Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale
Other Nuclear Accidents
• Kyshtym disaster at Mayak Chemikal Combine (MCC). Soviet Union, 1957 (6)
• Windscale fire. Unated Kingdom, 1957 (5)
• First Chalk River accident. Canada, 1952 (5)
• Goiania accident. Brazil, 1987 (5)
Nuclear Impact on Climate Change
• Fires from explosions lift dark smoke aerosol particles into the upper parts of the atmosphere
• Absorption of sunlight heat the smoke and lift it into the stratosphere
• Smoke can persist for years and block out the Sun’s light
• Causing surface temperatures to drop drastically
Nuclear Winter:• Disastrous implications for
agriculture• Threatened food supply for
most of the planet• Up to one billion people can die
from starvation
Climate Change: Major Forcing Mechanisms
• Human influence
o Greenhouse gases
o Particulates and soot
• Orbital variations
• Plate tectonics
• Solar activity
• Volcanism
Recent Developments:Governments
• GCF opens in Korea, 12/2013
• COP-19 in Warsaw. 11/2013
• IPCCC publishes carbon budget, 9/2013
• Human causes of climate change, 5/2013
• China to cut HCFCs, 4/2013
• California-Canadian initiative, 4/2013
Recent Developments: Businesses
• Climate Counts rated 136 companies in 16 industries based on their "corporate climate responsibility.“
• Their 22-criteria assessment divides into four sub-
sections, which they define as follows:
o Review: Is the company taking inventory of their greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions using an industry accepted accounting protocol? (22 possible points)
o Reduce: Has the company articulated a strategy for reducing GHG
emissions and have they succeeded in achieving actual reductions? (56 possible points)
o Policy Stance: Does the company explicitly support the need
for comprehensive energy and climate policy or is there evidence they oppose such measures? (10 possible points)
o Report: Is the company publicly disclosing information about
their sustainability efforts and their progress toward carbon neutrality? (12 possible points)
Recent Developments: Big Data
• Emissions Savings
o Moving business applications to the cloud could cut the associated per-user carbon footprint by 30 percent for large, already-efficient companies
o As much as 90 percent for the smallest and least efficient businesses
o Customers of fast-growing cloud computing giant Salesforce’s services produced 95 percent less carbon, on average
o The Salesforce community saved an estimated 170,900 tones of carbon in 2010
• Energy Efficiency
o Greenpeace estimate that cloud computing worldwide demanded 662 TWh of electricity in 2007, more than the power consumed by India or Germany.
o The cloud has certain advantages over on-site servers as these must be equipped for peak data usage
• Environmentally Friendly?
Greenest U.S. Companies Ranked By Newsweek
1. IBM
2. Hewlett-Packard
3. Sprint Nextel
4. Baxter
5. Dell
6. Johnson & Johnson
7. Accenture
8. Office Depot
9. CA Technologies
10. NVIDIA
11. Agilent Technologies
12. Hartford Financials
13. EMC Corporation
14. Adobe
15. Intel Corporation
How Companies have Become so Green
• Energy Savings Contracts
• Behavior Change Energy Conservation
– Strive for Five
– Reduce the Juice
– Slash the Trash
– Be Bold Go Cold
Working with:•Healthcare•Corrections•Commercial•Industrial•Utilities•State, local, & Municipal Government•Federal Government•K-12 Education•Higher Education (UMASSD!)
Climate Change: The Future Outlook
Climate Change:Regional Impacts
North America
o decreasing snowpack in western
mountains
o 5-20% increase in rain-fed agriculture
o heat waves
Latin America
o Tropical forest Savannah in eastern
Amazonia
o species extinction
o changes in water availability
Europe
o flash floods
o coastal flooding and erosion
o glacial retreat
o reduced snow cover
o extensive species loss
o crop productivity reduced
Climate Change:Regional Impacts
Africa
o year 2020: 75-250 million
people exposed to increased
water stress
o year 2020: up to 50% decrease
in rain-fed agriculture
o severely compromised
agricultural production and
access to food
Asia
o 2050s decrease in freshwater
availability in Central, South,
East, Southeast Asia
o increased flooding put coastal
areas at risk
o rise in death rate from flood
and drought-associated
disease
Climate Change:Goals & Strategies
The Goal:
Stabilize Greenhouse Gases at about 450-550 ppm
How hot will it get in our Lifetime?
● Increase energy efficiency
● Green transportation
● Use more Renewable sources (Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Bioenergy,)
● Avoid fossil fuels
● Biofuels from crops
● Natural gas
● Storing CO2 emitted from fossil fuels underground
● Maintain and increase forestlands to naturally absorb CO2
National Geographic’s Great Energy Challenge
Works Cited
http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-solutions/
http://www.environmentabout.com/1502/difference-between-climate-change-global-warming
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2013/sep/27/climate-change-how-hot-lifetime-interactive
http://climate.nasa.gov/index
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/basics/
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27027876
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/524391/the-sochi-olympics-arent-as-green-as-advertised/
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/nuclear/nomorechernobyls/what-happened-in-chernobyl/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/20/business/economy/unavoidable-answer-to-problem-of-climate-change.html
http://www.ipcc-wg2.gov/AR4/website/20.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bry-Flk2S2c
http://www.noresco.com/index.html